Page 31 of All I Need (Hearts of the South)
“We can’t be friends. It won’t work for us.” He took a step forward. “We’re either in this for real or we’re not.”
“Oh, we’re definitely not.” Her chin tilted further. “I told you, I don’t want a relationship.”
“Yeah, you told me all about what you didn’t want.” He closed the slight distance between them, cupping the rebellious line of her jaw in both hands. “What about what you need?”
He lowered his head to find her mouth with his. Her lips trembled under his, and the quiver in her jaw traveled through his fingers before she flattened both hands against his chest and pushed away. “No.”
Tears glittered along her lashes, but he didn’t release his gentle hold on her. “You know you want me, and I think you need us.”
“I can’t do this.” She brought her hands up and pushed her forearms against his, breaking the soft contact. “I don’t want to see you again, Emmett. I mean it.”
She spun and walked away to her car. This time, he didn’t call her name. She wouldn’t hear him anyway, and if she did, the expression in her eyes told him she wouldn’t respond.
* * * * *
Emmett loaded the training module files into an electronic folder and pushed them out via the online browser add-on he’d discovered on some middle school teacher’s blog. Hot damn. He leaned back and eyed the screen. It actually worked, and maybe if the online training was more convenient to access, the department’s personnel would gripe less.
Probably not—the guys he worked with seemed to be a bunch of crotchety old women some days. Kinda like his neighbor who’d cussed Troy Lee out over the parking spot that time—
He winced. Thinking about neighbors inevitably led somewhere he didn’t want to go, somewhere he’d avoided scrupulously for the past two weeks. He left home early and stayed at work late to minimize his chances of running into her. When he was home, he buried himself in grad school, his violin, research on streamlining department processes, and biographies. These days, he did his reading propped up against his headboard, avoiding both his couch and the Adirondack.
Hiding was stupid, he knew, but damn it, if thinking about her still made his chest hurt, what would seeing her do?
Considering she’d had a bigger impact on him in mere days than Lacey had in two months, he didn’t want to find out.
So he read, played the violin—even considered joining Troy Lee and Clark one Saturday night at the Cue Club—and read some more.
He snagged the department memo copies spitting from his printer and pushed up from his chair. Every day the leg hurt less, each week Holli was more optimistic about his progress, and he hung on to those positives too. In the multipurpose room, he pinned memos and missing/wanted notices to the announcement board. A pair of deputies ate lunch—takeout from the local BBQ place—at the table before the television.
Rob Bennett leaned back in his chair, feet propped on his desk, a half-finished burger flung down on a wrinkled wrapper. He balanced a book on one thigh and a legal pad on the other, and every so often, he scratched down a note. On the wall behind him, he’d turned the whiteboard into a web of everything he knew about the EMT shootings.
Two weeks, another bogus call with shots fired at responding personnel, and they had one obsessed investigator with no leads. Emmett found himself avoiding Bennett. He wanted to ask about Savannah so bad, and he didn’t trust himself not to. Bennett wasn’t the type to insert himself in other people’s personal lives, so their rare conversation centered on work or whatever topics Troy Lee and Clark brought to their Wednesday lunches.
Emmett cast one more quick glance at Bennett. He wanted to know if Savannah missed him, but even more, he wanted to know that she was okay.
Her absence was answer enough to the first question. And the second? Well, her absence again told him she didn’t want him to know how she was.
* * * * *
They weren’t going to let her go home. Savannah clenched her hands in her lap, out of sight of the hospital administrator and VP of operations from Southwest Georgia Medical. She’d presented her transition reports, made an impassioned plea for increased nursing resources, and requested a transfer back to her home hospital in Valdosta.
And all they wanted to do was rave about her performance here in the past month, howinvestedshe was in Chandler General.
Dear God, help her.
Suddenly, she’d regretted the prayerless state of her life since Gates’s death. Maybe, if she’d been faithful, she wouldn’t be stuck in this desert. But no, she’d been angry, and now she was wandering in the wilderness of Chandler County.
She wanted to cry. Instead, she smiled her best pageant smile and played the game. If she made nice, maybe they’d only leave her here for forty days and nights instead of forty years.
The meeting broke up, and after shaking hands around the table, she walked back to the ER, hoping it would be slammed and she would be needed. Technically her shift was over, but she’d worked late as often as possible in the past couple of weeks.
She found the ER to be quiet with no patients waiting, offering no reason to stay. The last thing she wanted was to go home this early and risk running into Emmett.
Leaning on the counter, she pulled her phone from her back pocket and tapped out a quick text to her sister.
Ok to join you for dinner?
Within seconds her phone buzzed with Amy’ssure. Savannah slid her phone into her pocket, relief deluging her. Time with Amy and Rob always settled her. She didn’t have to pretend with them.
